Blogs I Like

June 19, 2008

Weird, Weird World

I don't know if this week's news is actually any weirder than usual or if I just accidentally happened upon a bunch of oddball stories but here are three that I thought worth sharing, adapted from wire services.

Thing One: A quadriplegic woman is embarking on a record-breaking attempt to sail solo around Britain using just her breath to navigate a 20 foot sailing boat.

Hilary Lister, 36, is to sail single-handed round the British Isles. Just one problem - she is quadriplegic and can only move her head, eyes and mouth. She will spend the next three months sailing round the British Isles in a specially adapted boat she controls using a 'sip-and-puff' system of straws.

She suffers from a rare disorder known as reflex sympathetic dystrophy, an agonizing muscle-wasting condition which has left her with no movement below the neck.

At home in Canterbury, Kent, she can only do the simplest of tasks by using her forehead to push levers on a machine which changes the channel on the television or answers the telephone.

But thanks to high-tech adaptations to her Artemis 20 boat, she has become the first quadriplegic to sail across the English Channel and the first female quadriplegic to solo circumnavigate the Isle of Wight. Her previous record-breaking achievements will pale in comparison to the latest challenge, which will see her encounter some of the trickiest sailing conditions in the world.

She has tried to lead as active a life as possible and graduated from Oxford University with a high 2.1 in biochemistry despite having to dictate papers while lying flat on her back with epidural painkillers being pumped into her spine.

Her outlook on life changed dramatically when she discovered sailing, and realized she did not have to sit staring out of the window, but could experience the exhilaration of riding the crest of a wave.

"It is the ultimate freedom for me," she said. "I get out on to the water and suddenly my physical inabilities no longer matter. "It's amazing, I use my breath through three straws and they control the sails and the tiller. "I have a support boat that follows me from half a mile away, and even that feels too close."

Through her challenge, Mrs Lister hopes to raise money for her charity, Hilary's Dream Trust, which aims to help other people with disabilities achieve their dreams of sailing.

Thing Two: A street-sweeping truck roaring down a Bronx, N.Y. street sucked up a dog and killed her as her owner held the leash.

Robert Machin said he had just finished walking his two Boston terriers
and was about to put them into his car when the truck appeared. The retired transit worker said he was suddenly whipped around
and saw one of the dogs, Ginger (center, in photograph), being swallowed by the sweeper's round
bristles.

"I went berserk at that moment because I couldn't believe what had occurred," he said and that he yelled at the driver to stop, but the truck kept going.
He and friends chased the truck for 2 ½ blocks before catching up with
it. Ginger's slight body was later pulled from the sweeper.

The city Department of Sanitation called the death "a rare and unfortunate accident."A heartbroken Machin questioned whether the driver was observing proper
procedures, saying the truck seemed to barreling through the street at
an unsafe speed. The heartbroken Machin, 57, choked up as he described losing Ginger. With his children grown, he said, "These two dogs, they're my life."

Thing Three: Another human foot was found Wednesday on a British Columbia
shoreline, the second this week and the sixth within a year in a
bizarre mystery that has confounded police.

Like most of the
others, it was a right foot encased in a running shoe, said Sgt. Mike
Tresoor of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He said a citizen spotted
it on a beach and no other remains were found.

The latest find
and most of the others were recovered within a few miles of each other
along island shorelines in the Strait of Georgia, which lies to the
south and west of the provincial capital of Vancouver.

Authorities
say they haven't reached any conclusions about the origin of the feet
but are working to determine if there are any links to any other
partial remains recovered in the province.

"Too my knowledge, we
have not encountered anything like this," RCMP spokeswoman Annie
Linteau told The Associated Press Wednesday evening. She declined to
speculate if foul play was involved.

She did suggest that the
latest find could be from the body of a missing fishermen or a plane
crash victim, but she didn't provide any specifics. "In the first
four cases, we did not find any evidence the feet were severed," she
said. "It's too early to say if this foot was severed."

P.S. Rare midday update! News just broke that Foot #6 was a hoax. It was animal remains stuffed into a shoe! Why? No known motive yet but the first five are still mysteries.

I wonder if any of the feet belong to Jimmy Hoffa? Or maybe D.B. Cooper? This could be a real clue.
Also, it appears they are all the right foot, it should be easy for the cops they just need to search for a guy with two left feet.

I think it's worth mentioning to American readers that the 2.1 that woman received at Oxford is the equivalent of an A-/B+ on our system. In the American system a 2.1 would be barely passing, as a 2.0 is the minimum required to graduate at most universities.